One of Europe's most celebrated actresses, Carice van Houten is perhaps best known for her lead roles in Paul Verhoeven's award-winning Black Book, Bryan Singer's Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise and as Melisandre on Game of Thrones. Her Dutch-language feature Love Life, gained her further critical acclaim and broke box office records in her native Holland. Her next film Happy Housewive won her a record breaking 5th Golden Calf at The Netherlands Film Festival and was voted 'Best Dutch Actress of All Time' by the Dutch audience. Other awards include Best Actress for Black Butterflies at the Tribeca Film Festival. Recent credits include Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intruders and Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate, the Jesse Owens biopic, Race, with Jason Sudekis and Jeremy Irons and voiced a character in The Simpsons. She starred in Brimstone, opposite Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Kit Harrington, and will be reprising her role in HBO's hit series, Game of Thrones as the Red Priestess, Lady Melisandre.
Often plays in films of director Martin Koolhoven , for whom she played the part that made her famous ( Suzy Q ).
Is fluent in Dutch, English, German and French.
Older sister of actress, singer and stage-designer Jelka van Houten.
Met former boyfriend Sebastian Koch on the set of Zwartboek .
Singin in the Rain (1952) is her personal favorite movie of all time.
Went to St. Bonifatius College in Utrecht.
Born to Margje Stasse, who is on board of the Dutch educational TV, and Theodore van Houten , a writer and broadcaster.
Played the character of Gretchen Ferris in Ridley Scott s Body of Lies , but all her scenes were deleted in the final cut.
Is a WWF ambassador since 2009.
Scored a #1 hit in The Netherlands with Dutch rock band, Kane , in 2010.
She is named after the daughter of the English composer, Sir Edward Elgar , due to the fact that Carices father was investigating the secret of "Elgars Enigma Variations".
She was approached to play the role of "Cersei Lannister" in "Game of Thrones" , but refused, due to schedule conflicts with Intruders (2011/I) , and the role went to Lena Headey. In season 2, she was cast as "Melisandre".
Has starred in three movies that have the word "black" in the title: Zwartboek , aka "Black Book", Black Death and Black Butterflies .
Her paternal grandmother, Sarah Currie Lockhart, was Scottish.
Was considered for the role of Michelle in Elle .
In a relationship with Guy Pearce since 2015. They have a son, Monte Pearce (b.August 29, 2016).
Has named Dutch directors Paul Verhoeven and Martin Koolhoven (with whom she worked four times) as her favorite directors.
Had her son Monte between the filming of "Game of Thrones" s seasons 6 and 7.
In The Netherlands you know who the good and the bad are if I have to,say it so black and white. You can orientate yourself better in your,own country. Here everything is overwhelming. It is very difficult to,know who to trust here.
[About her scenes being cut from Body of Lies (2008) ] It sounds,much more pitiful than it is. To be honest, I was wondering several,times on set what my character was actually adding to the story.
I do this acing thing mostly for myself. I like to make a connection and,communicate with the audience to make myself feel less lonely.
I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. There are moments I feel like 99 percent of the people who write stuff are the sweetest people, and then one crazy guy or girl spoils the whole thing. .
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